Traditional wedding days follow a very similar pattern:
- Everyone gathers at a church/place of worship/registry office
- You get married
- Everyone then goes to the reception location for drinks
- You have a sit-down meal with numerous courses
- You party hard into the night
You could attend dozens of weddings throughout your life, and they’ll all follow that structure. Nonetheless, one wedding trend is gaining loads of heat and looks to oust one of the biggest parts of a typical wedding day: social dining.
For those unaware, social dining is a completely different approach to your usual sit-down wedding meal. Instead of guests choosing their dishes in advance and everyone sitting at designated tables waiting for their food, people can walk around the venue and eat what they want, when they want.
It’s certainly an interesting concept that looks like it’s here to stay – but why do modern couples prefer social dining to the traditional sit-down meal?
Provides More of a Wow Factor
Let’s face it, everyone wants their wedding to stand out and be memorable. Sit-down means don’t cater to this in the slightest. Hardly anyone will sit down for a wedding dinner and think “Wow, this is some showpiece”. Regardless of how delicious the meal is, it doesn’t linger in people’s minds or cause guests to stop in awe while they’re there.
Social dining will do that.
Couples are ditching the usual setups in favor of large charcuterie boards and food platters sprawled across multiple tables. Guests see these massive displays getting brought out and constructed – it turns the food into a proper showstopper. Your wedding immediately has a big talking point and something that makes it stand out from the rest.
Encourages Natural Social Interaction & Avoids Awkwardness
When planning a wedding, one of your biggest stressors is arranging the tables for your sit-down dinner. You have to think about how many people should sit at each table – and more importantly, who should sit with one another.
Two things typically happen:
- Some people sit with people they know
- Others are lumped with people they’ve never spoken to
While the latter may seem like a good way to encourage communication, it usually leads to awkwardness. There’s also the awkwardness of some guests feeling shunned because they didn’t get put at a table with the rest of their friends. It’s all too much to handle, which is why social dining is taking off.
The key is in the name: social dining encourages people to move around and find people to talk to. Whether you’re bumping into old friends or bonding with someone over your shared love of a particular food, it all feels natural and not forced. You’ll find that your guests mingle better when there’s social dining instead of the stricter sit-down meal.
